digital audio

If you’re gonna digitize a large vinyl record collection, you might maybe wanna check out the declicker. Built by the same people that make that $9,900 LT-1LRC Laser Turntable, the ELP declicker, um, removes the clicks and background noise (but you’re stuck with the hiss) from a record in real-time without the need to manually clean tracks up on a computer. It also transfers… Read More

MusicGiants isn’t the most well-known online music download service out there, but they’ve been pumping out WMA Lossless files since 2005. Until a couple weeks ago, all of the super hi-res files were locked down with Windows Media DRM, but no more! Right now you can only get Paul McCartney’s Memory Almost Full DRM-free in truly bit-for-bit identical quality to a CD, but by… Read More

While we’re on the subject of expensive audio equipment, we figured we should mention a companion piece of equipment for the Hovland Stratos: ELP Corp.’s Laser Turntable. In case you’re not familiar, the Laser Turntable uses, um, a laser to play vinyl instead of a needle. The laser not only doesn’t physically damage records from repeated playing, but picks up audio… Read More

Hot on the heels of Apple’s Steve Jobs asking the music labels to drop DRM requirements for selling their digital downloads, London-based EMI (the third-largest record company) has whole-heartedly started investigating making the music on its labels available for download in the MP3 format.
The story comes from the Wall Street Journal, but got picked up by the Associated Press this… Read More

Windows users always pull out the old “there are no peripherals for Mac” chestnut whenever they’re backed into a corner by rabid Apple addicts. While it’s true there aren’t as many extras for Mac as there are for Windows, there are still plenty of peripherals to go around.
To prove our point, we rounded up a bunch of our favorites. There are of course tons more… Read More

When I lived in Seattle and listened all the time to KEXP, I would have loved to have had the PopCatcher MusicDock MD-601.
On the surface, it’s just a decent looking FM radio with a dock at the top for connecting the included MP3 player, presumably for recording music directly to the portable. That alone wouldn’t be particularly interesting, since there are a number of digital… Read More

Yesterday, we mentioned SanDisk going after Apple’s Shuffle shoppers with its Sansa Express. Today, CoolTechZone.com is saying SanDisk is admittedly gunning for potential Zune buyers with its Wi-Fi-enabled Connect player.
Unfortunately, the site doesn’t do much elaborating on the topic despite apparently having talked to SanDisk about the DAP. Read More

Looking for a new stereophonic sound spectacular from your MP3s? Download the Fraunhofer IIS MP3 Surround player, MP3 Surround encoder and the MP3 Stereo eXtended converter. The no-cost eval apps, which are free of any watermarks, DRM or spyware, can be used to upgrade regular MP3 stereo files into MP3 Surround files. There’s an MP3 Surround streaming module too, for Internet radio… Read More

So after a long day running around the LVCC it was time to head off to a 3:00 p.m. meeting with iRiver. I was looking forward to this meeting since I set it up and thankfully I was not disappointed. Read More

, but with more walking. This entry catalogs the companies I met with the first “half” of January 8, my first full day of the show.
After waiting in a cab line for half an hour and then coughing up $20 to get from our hotel to the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) I hit the show floor for my first meeting at 9:30 with Seagate. Last time I spoke with the company reps back at… Read More

Belkin hinted to us about a CES announcement for musicians and here it is: the Belkin TuneStudio. Designed for use with 5G iPods, the four-channel mixer lets you record digital audio directly to your iPod at 16-bit, 44kHz quality.
Basically a portable audio recording studio, the compact unit (I don’t have dimensions, but in comparison to the iPod pictured, it’s fairly small)… Read More

Olympus owns the digital voice recorder marketplace, so it would be easy for it to kick back and not worry about updating or improving its lineup. Instead the company’s released three new models, the DS series, just in time for the holidays CES.
The Olympus DS-30 (256MB, $150), DS-40 (512MB, $200) and DS-50 (1GB, $250) boast high sound and recording quality along with a host of features… Read More

Those in the market for a higher-end iPod sound system will want to check out the $549 George, the first product to roll out from digital-audio manufacturer Chestnut Hill Sound. One of the edges it has on other systems is its unique wireless remote, which has a full-on knob for navigating your iPod’s menus on its high-resolution, backlit graphic display. You can use it to select music… Read More

Look out Apple. LG is looking to introduce a few low-capacity MP3 players into the market and not only do they look like a 1G Shuffle mixed with a Chocolate, they look better than the iPod Shuffle and most DAPs out there.
LG’s UP3Flat MP3 player is going to come in sizes 512MB to 2GB and has an incredibly streamlined and sexy look with touch-sensitive buttons. All models will come with… Read More

OK, raise your hand if you’d like more storage in your mobile devices e.g. your MP3 player, PMP, PDA (you’re still using a PDA?), UMPC (if you’re one of the five people that bought one) or your ultra-mobile laptop. Well thank goodness there are companies like Toshiba out there increasing the storage capacity of 1.8-inch hard disk drives to 100GB.
Based on perpendicular… Read More

<img src="http://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/video player, the V-Moda Vibe excels in both sound quality and style. And at a price of $101 they deliver a large listening experience for a relatively small investment.
The V-Moda Vibe’s are certainly more sophisticated looking than most in-ear headphones. Made from a metal alloy, they are incredibly lightweight… Read More

Wow, the person that green-lit the production of the $43 NeoTune Headphones should be fired toot sweet. I’m all for the elimination of cords, but putting an iPod nano dock on the side of a set of bulky full-size headphones is not the way to do it.
And I’m pretty sure if you walked down the street of a major metropolitan area wearing these, it would result in pointing and… Read More

I love it when companies I’ve never heard of say they have the “world’s best” whatever. It just takes me that much less time to prove them wrong. In this case it’s the Arriva headphone “system,” which the company claims is the “world’s best headphone platform on which to build the wireless headphone communications system.” Bad… Read More

With all the talk about screen resolutions on HDTV sets, people tend to forget about the other important part of the high-def experience: 5.1-channel surround sound. So if you’ve got yourself a sweet plasma, LCD, projector, or rear-projection HDTV and you’re rocking the built-in speakers (though we know there are some good ones out there) you’re doing you and your loved ones… Read More

The Zoom H4 Handy Digital Recorder looks like a device from “Star Trek.” But while it might look like it can zap Klingons, really it’s just a voice recorder, a pretty nice voice recorder. The H4 can record 24-bit/96 kHz digital audio as well as in MP3 with bitrates up to 320kbps. It features two studio-quality electret condenser microphones configured in an X/Y pattern for… Read More